ORCID

0009-0002-8304-9944

Keywords

Augmented Reality; Waveguide Display; Liquid Crystal Photonics;

Abstract

In the dynamic arena of display technology, augmented reality (AR) displays represent a pivotal advancement, seamlessly bridging the digital and physical worlds. This dissertation mainly examines waveguide-based AR display technologies—which enable slim form factors and large eyebox via exit pupil expansion—yet still face persistent challenges: low ambient contrast ratio (ACR), poor color performance and slow simulation design cycles. To address these issues, this dissertation introduces novel liquid crystal photonic devices and system-level optical solutions—together with accelerated simulation methods for design—to enhance user experience and system performance. First, the dissertation examines one of the major efficiency bottlenecks arises from multiple interactions at in-couplers to maintain eyebox continuity. To overcome this, we discover a novel polarization-conversion effect in polarization volume gratings that routes power on the second interaction while preserving eyebox continuity, achieving ~2× efficiency enhancement and a corresponding improvement in ACR. This mechanism reframes in-coupler design space for manufacturable AR displays. Extending this discovery, we generalize and explain the phenomenon via an eigenmode analysis in cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) devices: as incidence departs from the helix axis, polarization eigenstates transition continuously from circular to linear, enabling polarization conversion but degrading polarization selectivity and further exacerbating full-color performance in multilayer CLC. To stabilize performance, we introduce material, structural, and phase-compensation strategies that maintain wide-angle, full-color performance in multilayer CLC stacks. Finally, to make waveguide design practicable, we develop a beam-tracing method that reuses propagation operators and eliminates redundant ray-tracing evaluations. This accelerates co-optimization of location-dependent couplers for uniformity and efficiency by ~10×, enabling per-region tailoring across in/out-couplers and exit-pupil-expansion stages within realistic iteration times. Together, these contributions connect liquid crystal photonics device design and waveguide system performance, yielding AR displays with higher efficiency, improved ACR, better color performance, and a significantly faster path from concept to manufacturable product.

Completion Date

2025

Semester

Fall

Committee Chair

Shin-Tson Wu

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Optics and Photonics

Department

CREOL

Format

PDF

Identifier

DP0029847

Document Type

Thesis

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

Download

Share

COinS